Dozens of Ukrainians are feared dead after a Russian bomb destroyed a school sheltering about 90 people as Moscow's invading forces kept up their barrage of eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Russians hope to complete their conquest of Mariupol in time for Victory Day celebrations on Monday. However, Ukraine’s military flattened Russian positions on a Black Sea island that has become a symbol of resistance.
Rescuers searched for survivors at the Hotel Saratoga, a 19th century structure that was heavily damaged by the blast on Friday. A gas leak was the suspected cause of the explosion.
Ukraine is one of the world's biggest producers of wheat, corn and sunflower oil. Officials say 30 percent of farmland is now occupied or unsafe. "My fields were destroyed by the shelling," one farmer says.
Ukraine’s military says that it recaptured some areas in the south and repelled Russian attacks in the east. Meanwhile, a bloody battle rages at a steel mill in Mariupol where Ukrainian troops are holed up in tunnels and bunkers, fending off a Russian onslaught.
The European Union’s chief executive has called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
The U.S. already has provided about 7,000 Javelins, including some that were delivered during the Trump administration, about one-third of its stockpile, to Ukraine, according to an analysis by Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies international security program.
As fighting in Ukraine's east grew more entrenched and some 100 civilians were evacuated from a besieged steel plant in Mariupol, a delegation of congressional Democrats visited Kyiv in a sign of American commitment to Ukraine's efforts.
Ukrainian forces are fighting village by village to hold back a Russian advance in their country's east, while the United Nations works to broker a civilian evacuation from the ruins of the city of Mariupol.